How do I beat this guy?

[gerardlr]

I'm a 49 yr old long time player. Here's who I'm up against, how can I beat him??

I have beaten him before, however he got the upper hand in our last match. Everything was just working for him.

His strengths:
* Exceptional volleyer of the ball, very accurate. Any volley afforded him usually ends up being killed low and/or in the corner.
* Exceptional at taking the ball out of the air, even when tight against the wall or high.
* Exceptional at covering the court sideways, it's very hard to get the ball off the front wall and back past him.
* Exceptional at the front, very fine touches, dropping the ball, slicing it, deceiving, with the ball ending very low and in the sidewall niche.

Weaknesses:
* Not a consistently good serve.
* Fitness.
* Not great in the back corners (when I hit a good length).

Any ideas of how I can beat this guy? Your input will help me keep my dignity!

Thanks!!
Gerard

[PKBasu]

Attack his serve, make him run (forward and back, rather than sideways -- since he is good at the latter) and then go for the corners!

Good luck!

[gerardlr]

Excellent, I'll try this tomorrow! You're right, I'm giving him too much time to corner me in the back on his service. I should move forward to attack the serve instead of waiting for it to come off the back wall.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[gerardlr]

Right so I beat him 3-1. Great result. But not all plain sailing. The score flatters me, all except perhaps the last game could have gone either way.

I attacked his serve in 2 ways. 1) Straight drive, tight on the wall and to good length; 2) low boast, ending low and dying in the corner. I used them intermittently so he didn't know what to expect. Both worked well. I also tried to stand closer and take the ball early a number of times but not with great results.

I mixed my serve up a lot which meant he'd have to use his feet a lot to get in position for the shot. With his fitness low, he's lazy to do that. It worked okay, although I probably conceded some points through some weak serves as a result.

This guy because of his ability to cut off any ball and prevent it from going past him, has the effect that I try to rush shots to catch him out of position. And hit harder than normal. In the last few games I tried to slow myself down and think rather. I started playing more drop shots to the front corners and again with his fitness this put him under pressure.

Thanks for your advice!